Poppy Playtime: Why people love the game they've never played

[0:00] there's a little bit of fatigue that can kick in too if you know you get excited about a new [0:03] character dad next chapter a new character you're excited about dad you know it's it'd be nice to [0:08] have some of them survive right are your children safe from playtime co's latest toy employees see [0:15] things they shouldn't there are accidents a nursery full of orphans rule number four [0:23] whatever they are they aren't people anymore and nobody would ever know if anything happened to [0:29] them first chapter poppy playtime has become one of the most talked about indie horror games in [1:06] recent years known for its jump scares and eerie horror the game draws players in with its tense [1:12] immersive world some of the creepiness comes from the found footage style vhs tapes scattered [1:19] throughout the game which build the story alongside videos on youtube deepening the law for [1:24] fans poppy playtime is a horror puzzle game set in an abandoned toy factory where players must solve [1:31] challenges while avoiding the reality of the game and the horror of the game itself poppy playtime [1:32] is a horror puzzle game set in an abandoned toy factory where players must solve challenges while [1:32] avoiding toys that contain human consciousness while many first encounter it through children [1:38] huggy buggy toys school playground chatter or viral youtube clips the game has a much broader [1:44] following chapter 5 released in march 2026 sold 110 000 copies in its first three hours and 275 000 [1:53] in its first week topping global sales charts on steam and reaching number one on twitch [2:07] characters like huggy buggy yarn of [2:09] be and lily love braids are among those responsible for hooking the attention of millions [2:15] with mob entertainment's youtube channel recently surpassing a billion views it's safe to say that [2:20] the popularity doesn't seem to be dwindling the association with children runs deep with [2:27] official collaborations in minecraft as well as fortnite and huggy wuggy merch both official [2:34] and unofficial appearing seemingly everywhere however the adult fandom of poppy playtime is just [2:45] as huge drawn in by its mix of horror mystery and intricate storytelling older players engage [2:51] extensively with its story creating art analyzing law and debating theories online whoa whoa where [2:59] do you think you're going there buddy look i know it's exciting but before we can get you [3:03] out there on the factory floor we've got to talk about safety huh but for all its popularity [3:12] puppy playtime hasn't existed without controversy from early backlash over nfts to [3:18] accusations that the game was too frightening for the young audience who embraced it the series [3:24] has spent years walking a tightrope between creativity and criticism so when i spoke to the [3:32] people behind the game i wanted to understand how they handled that pressure and how they balance [3:38] horror with the responsibility of creating something children inevitably latch on to it's a [3:44] very interesting development experience because we have as you've identified there a very broad [3:49] audience of players from fairly young to young to young to young to young to young to young to young to [3:51] young casual players to more mature core gaming audience players and so that makes it a difficult [3:58] game to satisfy all tastes and play styles but it also means that we tune a lot of our decisions [4:04] to make sure that we can kind of keep the accessibility just right where the horror [4:08] is measured and calculated that we don't alienate our youthful audience members or [4:12] people who are not necessarily core horror fans but also still have enough teeth that [4:16] we can draw in and engage a more mature audience some parents have said that it's not quite a [4:22] appropriate for children so how would you respond to that and is that something you think about when [4:26] you're coming up with these stories a lot of us are parents um and a lot of us are concerned about [4:32] making sure that we never go past that line right um this is still a game that's made for mostly [4:39] children um and we are very very sensitive about that um but also we don't as we all know like if [4:47] you make things too kiddy then you know children will be like ah you know i don't want to [4:52] interact with this right this is this is baby stuff right so we're constantly asking those [4:56] questions right um and we're we're very um aware that uh we were very aware of that line and when [5:04] we go when we cross that line we always bring it back we have wonderful conversations we have [5:09] people who we've specifically hired to keep us um pushing that line and also pushing back we [5:17] have a wonderful push pull right is it toyetic enough is it creepy enough right [5:22] and that is another uh of our core pillars is making sure that that mix of creepy and cute is [5:28] not only natural but holistic for everything we do um and it's yeah it's a it's a constant uh debate [5:36] and we're super aware of it hi my name is anthony but mostly known as nized why do you think that [5:41] poppy playtime is such a huge phenomenon why do you think it strikes a chord with so many people [5:45] whether younger or older the story and the characters as soon as you see hagiwagi for [5:50] example it instantly gets you into it and you're like oh my god i can't wait to see that playtime [5:52] with every new character especially with chapter five you know with lily love braids [5:57] with the prototype as well bobby playtime has grown so much over the years and the story [6:03] especially just the mystery behind poppy playtime is what's the beauty behind the game they don't [6:08] just spoon feed you stuff you have to play the game you have to dig into the lore you have to [6:14] find vhs tapes no scattered around here and there and that's just the beauty of it just the story [6:21] and the mystery behind our playtime. I'm probably just talking this is why i'm doing this for you and [6:22] bobby playtime is what gets people really engaged so when you're coming up with these new characters [6:27] and you're discussing them is it always in the back of your mind that you're trying to make a [6:30] character who's more iconic than huggy wuggy it's not necessarily that but we have this filter that [6:37] we always look through which is kind of a toyetic filter right um and we have some wonderful [6:42] wonderful artists here who truly bring life to these uh toys and these creatures um and sometimes [6:50] we start with art first which uh i know is sometimes rare um again sometimes an artist would [6:56] bring something to a meeting and we're like oh we need to tell a story about that character happens [7:01] all the time it happened in chapter five um and it's very exciting and i'll give an example wrong [7:07] side audibles um that were in chapter five and that was a that was just an artist riffing in a [7:12] meeting and we were like yes please let's let's figure this out right um so that spawned like a [7:19] whole new kind of [7:20] uh line of characters uh that are you know in the game and we're exploring now in other formats so [7:26] yeah absolutely we are children we have children we have multiple generations right um that are [7:33] working together so we're always looking through that filter what is your name what is your [7:42] experiment number can you tell me who you are the game has now reached five chapters with a new [7:56] release arriving almost every year but who's behind these creepy characters and what comes [8:02] next [8:04] time didn't begin as a massive franchise it began with two brothers in a bedroom building the [8:10] earliest versions of this world long before anyone knew what it would become it's been really [8:15] fascinating to see how the studio has changed and grown chapter three when it was in development was [8:20] the most complex largest scale project the studio had tried to take on [8:24] and it was an immense challenge for us to get that out the door and it was really awesome to see how [8:29] it was received by the audience but over time we've been trying to figure out how do we really [8:34] shoot for the stars what are the ways that we can set up the studio cycle over cycle to make [8:38] something bigger and better each time and so that's been the one of the things i've loved the [8:42] most about this journey is seeing how the studio has sort of grown from this independent small team [8:48] with a lot of passion but not a lot of experience in making games at this scale and now we've got a [8:52] bigger team more experienced a lot more disciplines really interesting to see how we're setting up the [8:57] foundation for the future so that we can tackle bigger and more exciting challenges down the road [9:02] so that from a studio development [9:04] perspective has been really cool and personally when i first joined the studio [9:08] i was not expecting to be sort of swept off my feet in the way that i was [9:12] the team uh really has such an infectious energy where they love what they do the passion for the [9:18] craft is some of the best i've ever seen in my entire career and when i landed here i was just [9:23] so taken in by that it was such a creative revival for me so helping this the team and the studio and [9:29] the product grow these past few releases has just been really gratifying for me if you have a look [9:34] on ready you'll see some people discussing about senior team members moving on over the years so i [9:38] just wanted to ask on their behalf really has that changed the direction of the narrative at all so [9:44] what what i can say to that is with any company in any ip that happens right um the the cool thing [9:51] here and one of the reasons i'm here is the founders the creators are still here right i [9:57] found in the past when the founders move on or the initial creators move on i think some of the spirit [10:03] project dies and the world building dies right you go from creation to life support um but that [10:10] is not the case here so we still have the people who crafted this world in their room with the [10:17] bunk bed like you know they they showed it to me like one time we were they were at home visiting [10:21] family and they were we had they had a meeting from their room and they're like yeah this is where [10:25] copy was created it's like it was their room it's two brothers and they had a bunk bed and they [10:30] they were talking about you know the worlds they wanted to create so i think that as long as we have [10:36] that core we'll be fine and we do have a lot of new people coming in which which i think is wonderful [10:42] um and the the i think that the question behind the question is is the core of poppy still there [10:50] and the answer is absolutely absolutely one of the most fascinating things about poppy playtime [10:56] is that a huge portion of its fans have never actually played the game themselves [11:00] in [11:01] in general we try to remember that there's there's two core audiences this is a problem [11:15] across all game development particularly when you get a certain kind of game that you make that [11:19] like poppy has a huge viewership and not just a huge playership is that content creators play [11:26] the game with fundamentally different expectations than your normal day-to-day players and [11:31] so it's important to kind of honor both because if you focus too much on pleasing content creators [11:37] then sometimes you'll end up alienating the parts of the game that your fans like [11:40] and vice versa so we try to be mindful of both because it is a really powerful and exciting thing [11:46] to be able to see these great content creators out there creating stuff and the team gets super [11:50] invigorated when we see cool new content come out we internally we consume a lot of it we have a [11:54] great time seeing new streamers or reaction videos from from people and some of the great moments that [11:59] we'll create [12:00] just focus on the video! [12:00] just focus on the video! [12:01] just focus on the video! [12:05] just focus on the video! [12:06] i think if we do our jobs well as a developer we will create those moments naturally and then [12:11] they'll come through for streamers but we definitely will take a step back and think [12:15] to ourselves oh man this will be a great moment to see somebody streaming because it's just going [12:19] to provoke such an exciting reaction you're going to see the chat light up and and that's a fun [12:23] experience on its own so while we have to be careful about what feedback we address and and [12:28] like how and when uh to make sure that we're honoring the full spectrum of our audience we [12:35] moment where we think to ourselves oh that's going to be a great moment to see so and so play [12:39] oh i can't wait to see how they react to that so we try to do both when it comes to streamers and [12:44] youtubers who are playing through your game how much of an impact do you think that's had on this [12:49] fandom love that question and i'm sure you know the answer it's massive it's massive it's absolutely [12:55] titanic um we owe our success to our player base as well as uh the streamers um and the online [13:05] theory crafters um it is it is it is part of who we are right like our our team comes from you know [13:14] animators on youtube and it comes from horror fans and it comes from game fans and um we've been [13:21] really embraced by our community um so yes and and it's a back and forth it's a conversation and [13:28] when we craft moments we always think about you know is this something that the streamers will [13:34] enjoy is [13:35] you [13:35] something that the players will enjoy will they be talking about it um another of our pillars is [13:42] never turn the lights on 100 there's a lot of theory crafting because we don't want to give [13:47] you the full story yes we we have it but we also want you to talk about it uh we want you to to be [13:53] to debate it so it is very much a live conversation which is uh actually very exciting for us [14:02] poppy playtime has faced increasing criticism from streamers and fans alike [14:07] most notably markiplier whose eight minute rant about the game recently went viral here's an [14:12] interesting character gone this character's injured gone this character's interesting to [14:17] be around you for a bit gone much of the backlash centers on the series leaning too heavily into [14:23] repetitive chase sequence gameplay as well as introducing new characters only for them to be [14:27] killed off or seemingly killed off almost immediately oh man this is a [14:33] you [14:33] this is a big talking point within this stupid video as well as outside of the studio we have [14:39] a lot of characters as people have observed we've spent a lot of time internally bringing this [14:44] character to life iterations on the concept iterations on the modeling the rigging the [14:48] texture you know the whole shebang that it takes to make something in a video game come to life [14:53] it's a cross-discipline effort it takes a huge amount of time and resources from a lot of talented [14:58] developers and then like gannosaurus you have like 10 seconds on screen and then they're gone and [15:03] it's it's definitely tough because there's a lot of resources that go into making those things that [15:09] it would be good for us to be able to get a little bit more out of but also when you see them resonate [15:14] with the fans and they're like oh I love that character oh no I don't get any of any more of [15:18] that character I think there's a little bit of a a change in the studio in terms of like once upon [15:24] a time these were meant to be sort of bite-sized experiences these characters were steppingstones [15:28] building toward a greater future but we're seeing a lot of them resonate with players a lot longer [15:34] and a lot of players really want a longer developed character arc to learn more about these these [15:39] toys these these people that we introduce and so we're kind of thinking a lot about that into the [15:44] future of the universe and the future of the uh of where we're going is that how can we make sure [15:49] that we better honor fans excitement and interest in these characters because there's a little bit [15:53] of fatigue that can kick in too if you know you get excited about a new character dead next chapter a [15:58] new character you're excited about dead you know it's it'd be nice to have some of them survive [16:04] thinking about all the time everybody has their opinions and not every opinion can speak for you [16:10] obviously you have to look into the game yourself and play the game yourself to get your own opinion [16:14] for me I'm a really big Chase guys so when chapter 5 introduced a bunch of chases and more action I [16:21] instantly fell in love with it that's what I felt about chapter 4 it lacked a little bit of action [16:26] so when chapter 5 gave us just chases chases action it really did hype me up and I was really [16:34] taken with the action for this newest chapter so with the puppy playtime movie in the works or is [16:39] coming at some point does that put extra pressure on getting the end of the story right luckily it [16:45] doesn't really because we kind of know where we're going um and we've had uh we have a wonderful [16:50] relationship with our film partners um and we've shared the story with them of the game and we're [16:58] working together on the the film story so our hope is that it'll be holistic you know one [17:04] will fight the other one will in them both support each other um and they've been very open to us uh [17:11] protecting all the things we just talked about like the history the lore and you know we want [17:15] to respect our current fans and also open up the IP to new new viewers new players new fans as well [17:22] so it's been it's been a very positive experience uh both um legendary and angry films I mean if [17:29] you think about it we have the producers of the Transformers and Dune teaming up with us on our [17:34] little game [17:35] uh which is super exciting can we get letters sometimes and in the office uh at mob or in other [17:49] companies that we're from or people telling stories about how this this game helped them [17:53] through this difficult challenge in their life or they were sick in the hospital for six months and [17:57] the only thing they had was their Nintendo switch or they're caught their little laptop and they [18:01] were able to play the game that you worked on and helped them through that difficult time so it's [18:06] something I always try to remind our developers the team you're not just making a game you're [18:10] creating something that in many ways can be a refuge from a world that is sometimes scarier [18:16] than anything we could put in the game and that is a huge blessing in a way it's such a great gift to [18:22] be able to give to the world not just this cool experience and the mystery and the horror the [18:26] moments of excitement but also that little bubble that people can explore and find a [18:31] community and find more about themselves or what they're passionate about I got to meet so many [18:36] lovely people inside the popular play time community and I am always thankful for them [18:40] single day so passionate it is just it never ceases to amaze me honestly i love it too i love [18:48] people's willingness to share their passion outwardly because your passion has to be [18:53] loud enough for it to like take effect and for for people to kind of notice and it is really [18:59] cool to watch people befriend each other i love the community aspect of of fandom in general we [19:13] have lots of great stories to tell that go beyond what the one that we're kind of currently in the [19:18] middle of which ones we choose to tell and how how and when we choose to tell them is beyond [19:23] the scope of my role but i will say that we are definitely sensitive to the fact that we don't [19:30] want to drag this out forever right we want to make sure that people feel it they're satisfied [19:35] with the experience that it has momentum that it's going somewhere interesting still everything [19:39] we're making we're putting in the full amount of passion and attention to to make it it's [19:44] a lot of fun and it's a lot of fun and it's a lot of fun and it's a lot of fun and it's a lot of [19:44] own standalone worthy experience we're definitely not in that space where people are worried like [19:49] oh they're just trying to drag it out for more more dollars but that's not it at all like we [19:54] care so much about what we're making and we really do believe that what we had in chapter five [19:59] deserved to stand on its own and deserved a little bit more beyond that how much beyond that i can't [20:06] speak to exactly but i can assure you there's no intention to drag it out it's goodbye from me [20:14] and it's goodbye from huggy goodbye